Our trip started very early on Friday morning. I made a very rigorous and detailed agenda so we got an early start. We arrived on Magazine Street around noon. Now, Magazine Street is filled with unique shops and adorable cafes and it was probably my most favorite place to visit. We grabbed lunch at Cafe Rani and enjoyed our meal under a shady tree. Cafe Rani was voted the best outdoor dining and best hamburger in New Orleans. (Shh...we cheated on the vegetarian diet and shared a delicious burger). And of course, we just had to add feta cheese to the burger when we saw that it was available. The burger was served on a wheat ciabatta bun and that gave the burger a really sweet taste. Also, one dish that Brandon and I can't live without is spinach dip. Cafe Rani's spinach dip was very flavorful, and full of surprises. It seemed like a much healthier version to the ones we've had before though it wasn't as creamy as other dips. It could possibly make our list (Mellow Mushroom has the best).
After walking in the hot sun, we checked into the DoubleTree Hotel and were greeted with a mouth-watering chewy chocolate chip cookie. Two thumbs up for any hotel that gives you a chocolate chip cookie upon arrival. For dinner, we adventured back out to the French Quarter and grabbed a five cheese brick oven pizza from Louisiana Pizza Kitchen. I didn't get any pictures of the pizza, but it was extremely delightful and filling...trust me.
One of my goals was to not get coffee at Starbucks and try local places there. PJ's coffee was started in New Orleans and now it has multiple locations across the states. I enjoyed a strong caramel cappuccino that I thought I might be regretting later, but I slept like a princess on Friday night with hotel air-conditioning blasting out. I hate to admit it but when we're not paying for it, we keep it freezing in the room. Brandon loves sleeping cold.
We woke up early Saturday morning because Brandon had his first class at 8am. It wasn't too hard to get up knowing that I would be eating at the famous Cafe Du Monde very shortly. Brandon got out of his class early, yet again, and we made our way to Cafe Du Monde. It was about 9:30am and there was already a huge line outside. The line didn't seem to be not moving very fast, so we decided to walk around the shops nearby hoping the line would die down. We arrived back in line around 10:30 and it seemed to be moving faster than before. While in line, a gentleman was playing his trumpet to some well known hymns; signature New Orleans. You just have to soak it in because you don't get that anywhere else. When we were seated, our table still had the previous guest's plates covered with powdered sugar - I was so glad I didn't wear black, because it would have been very noticeable where I had been. Brandon, busy taking off his polo shirt in fear of powdered remnants, and I put in our order for six Beignets, Cafe Au Lait, and waters. It was pretty chaotic with the amount of people sitting under one roof, but no one seemed stressed or upset about the wait for the Beignets. Finally, we got the mouth-watering donuts. All I can say is ...wow. You could hardly see the them in the mess of powdered sugar covering them and the plate.
We didn't really eat a lunch on Saturday, so mid-afternoon we began searching for dinner options. Since we didn't have access to our car, we walked everywhere. Italian seem to be what our taste buds were wanting and we heard about an Italian restaurant called Mona Lisa off of Royal Street. The location was at the end of the French Quarter and kind of a hole in the wall. We ordered spinach dip and fettuccine alfredo, of course. But it wasn't the best fettuccine alfredo. The flavors didn't seem to come out; however, the spinach dip had magnificent flavors. This creamy concoction was filled with sour-cream and cream-cheese.
After dinner, we were on a search to find a unique dessert place, but we didn't have luck. While searching, we came across street party with a live band. It was an amazing experience. It made me realize how great life is and it was awesome to see all types of people coming together and having a wonderful time. This is what New Orleans is all about. The street party was a great event to end the night.
On Sunday, Brandon attended his last conference and sadly we realized that our weekend get-away was coming to an end. We checked out of the hotel around 10am and stopped by the New Orleans Museum of Art before heading home. I had done a little bit of research of the museum and I wanted to check out the Sculpture Garden. The garden was very fascinating, because it had numerous unique sculptures in a small area. It was really nice but it was just too hot to stay outside for very long. So we jumped back in the car and made our way home.
Once again, New Orleans was a great place to visit and somewhere everyone should visit at least once or maybe once every ten years. Some people say the trashy-ness is the charm of the city but after unpacking, I found it kind of annoying. It's no wonder this city is ranked number one dirtiest city of the U.S. http://travel.yahoo.com/p-
Oh, by the way, we got to see a newly-wed couple leaving their ceremony venue accompanied by another street band. Check it out!
Did the spinach dip at Cafe Rani have shrimp in it? Because that first picture looks shrimpy and delicious!
ReplyDeleteThe red stuff is actually tomatoes. I think shrimp would have been awesome in it. I should come up with a recipe.
ReplyDelete